PDO - Purr-fectly Lovely

Welcome to April and welcome back to my blog!  One of new stamp sets released by Polka Dot Orchard is called Purr-fectly Lovely Easter.  I knew the moment I saw it that this set was meant for me.  I'm a big cat lover and have five fur babies (in addition to my two human children) to share my crafting space with.  It can sure be challenging to craft with pets around.  Take a peek at the picture of the set below and head HERE to grab it from the PDO store.

I also used the background from the Woodland Cuties (Easter Moose) set.

You can snag it in the store HERE.

Alrighty, lets check out my card.   I just HAD to do another slimline card.  I really am hooked.

I don't know about you guys but my creativity has taken a bit of a vacation.  This card was a whole lot of playing until I just found something that made me happy.  Shall we talk about my process?

I started by printing the kitty image out onto Neenah Solar White cardstock.  I decided I wanted to color the kitty to match my cat Percy who is a Russian Blue.  I felt the N Copic grays were the best match for the fur.

Copics used: N7,5,3,1. G17. R30 & 32. E50, 51, 53, 55, 57 & 59.  I then cut it out but I left a small white border around it.  I was thinking ahead to my background and I thought it would help the kitty pop from the background.

I printed the egg background onto a piece of white cardstock that I cut down to 8 1/2" x 3 1/2".  I dug out my Distress Inks and pulled out six bright colors.  Those are: Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Peacock Feathers and Mowed Lawn.  I got out my foam blending tools and started applying the Distress Inks.  Once the blending was complete I splattered on some clean water, let it sit and then dabbed it up.  I always love this look.  I also sprayed the entire piece with Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Craft Spray.  This spray is AMAZING!  It's just so sparkly.  It's really hard to capture in photos but its stunning in real life.

I set the background aside to dry and got to work on a few more pieces I needed.  I cut a piece of green cardstock with the grass die from Trinity Stamp's Slimline Scenic Borders set.  I sponged on the Mowed Lawn Distress ink and also spritzed with clear water.  Now I wanted some clouds.  I didn't want to cover up  too much of the background so I used a heavy vellum.  I cut it with the cloud die from the same Trinity Stamps Slimline Scenic Borders die set.  I almost have all the pieces.

Next, I cut out some extra eggs from another piece of the background that I had printed.  I cut out five of them and sponged a different Distress Ink from the background on each egg.  Wanna build a card?

I glued the grass piece down at the base of the background panel.  I wrapped the vellum clouds around the top of the background panel and glued them on the backside.  I added the kitty on top of the grass and arranged the eggs around his feet.  I printed one of the sentiments from the Purr-fectly Lovely Easter Kitty set onto white cardstock.  I trimmed it down and backed it with a piece of black cardstock just leaving a small border.  Before I glued it over the vellum clouds, I added a dab of glue under the vellum.  The sentiment is going to cover it perfectly.

I let the card sit overnight.  I wanted to do something else to add a bit more but I wasn't sure what it was.  I looked through some of my newish craft supplies and grabbed out the Unicorn Stickles.  I went through my other Stickles and found Icicle Stickles.  These match the Unicorn Stickles but it has bigger "chunks" of glitter.  I added both onto different parts of the eggs on the background and by the kitty.  It was just what I was looking for!

I love how this slimline card turned out.  It just makes me happy!  Thanks SO much for stopping by today.

~Kristina

PDO - I'm all Ears

Welcome my friends!  I'm here today to share a card featuring one of the newest digital stamp sets by Polka Dot Orchard called I'm All Ears.

You can get your hands on this adorable set right HERE in the Polka Dot Orchard store.  The design of the set lends itself really well to a slimline card so that's what I did.

So, let's talk about making this card.  I started by printing the stamp and sentiment out onto 80lb Neenah Solar White cardstock.  I then cut it down using a slimline die from Trinity Stamps.  I also printed it out onto regular copy paper.  I cut the copy paper version out carefully and spread a thin coat of Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue.  I set the mask aside to dry.  Time to color the bunny and the carrot.

I used Copic markers to get some nice vibrant coloring.  For the bunny I used E30, 31, 33 35 and 37 for the fur.  For the inner ears and toe pads I used R30 and R32.  The nose was T5.  The carrot was YR18, 09, 07, 04 and 02.  The greenery was G28, 19, 16, 14 and 12.  I added touches of white gel pen in some of the highlight areas.

Next I lined my mask up over the colored image and got to working on the background.  I created a mask for a hill and the sky.  I just freehand cut a wavy pattern with cheap cardstock.  I lined up the top part of the hill mask to color the bottom.  I used blending sponges to add Lucky Clover and Mowed Lawn Distress Oxides.  

Then I switched out the masks to work on the sky.  Again, I used blending sponges with Chipped Sapphire, Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxides.

And now my favorite part, peeling off the final mask!

Oooooooo!  Isn't it fabulous???  I splattered on some clean water and blotted it off to create some added texture.  I dried it completely with a heat tool before moving on to the next steps.

I cut a simple white rectangle layer to put behind the bunny panel.  I created the card base out of 110lb Neenah Solar White.  I cut the striped paper with one of the larger slimline dies from the Trinity Stamp die set.  I thought the white on the striped paper was too stark so I sponged Salty Ocean along the edges of the paper.  I glued it onto the white card base.  I added a generous amount of foam tape to the back of the bunny panel and attached it to the striped paper.  Card complete!

Here's another look at the completed card.

Thank you SO much for visiting today.  I hope to see you back again!

~Kristina